scholarly journals Towards an African ecogender theology: A decolonial theological perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chammah J Kaunda
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
Traditional Societies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Relational Solidarity

The struggles for environmental and gender justice have challenged how theology is done in Africa. This article framed within the context of continuous search for life-giving African Christianity, argues that a radical relational solidarity that existed between African humanity and environment in some Zambian traditional societies was grounded on ecogender principle. Thus, it seeks to probe deeper into contemporary challenge of African men’s alienation from environment as a consequence of colonial quest to restructure African social order. Employing decolonial theological perspective, the article tried to reinterpret some life-giving elements from Bemba and Shila cultural heritage in order to re-conceptualize contemporary African Christian ecotheology. It is from this perspective where African ecogender theology is constructed towards transformation of African human and environment relationship.

scholarly journals The Socio-Political Construction of Climate Change: Looking for Paths to Sustainability and Gender Justice

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ericka Fosado Centeno
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Environmental Relations

With the purpose of getting to know the cultural and socio-political mechanisms that shape the climate agenda, this study follows a discourse analysis method and a gender perspective, for which an analytical basis is proposed to identify the cognitive, normative, and symbolic components that give meaning and substance to climate policy. Examining the productions of international organizations responsible for generating climate policy, a corpus consisting of 47 documents (reports, communications, programs, and legal framework) was analyzed, spanning from 1994 to 2015, to identify the trend of climate agenda prior to the Paris Agreement. The results indicate that the terms in which climate change is placed as a public issue contribute to reproducing a social order based on an anthropocentric, utilitarian, virtualized, and mercantilist vision of socio-environmental relations. Control mechanisms of peripheral countries and groups whose rights have been breached by discriminatory practices can emerge in this process, with women being especially affected. Based on empirical findings that follow the first two decades of climate policy, the logic underlying the climate discourse is shown, and the challenges it poses to reach more fair and sustainable agreements are discussed. Finally, some proposals are outlined to help guide the climate agenda in that direction.

Prophecy, Divination and Gender Justice in the Lumpa Church in Zambia

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kangwa
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Strong Growth ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
The Future ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Church

This article examines the role of Prophecy and divination in the success of the Lumpa Church of Alice Mulenga Lenshina in Zambia. Concurring with James Amanze (2013), the article argues that the rapid growth of Christianity in Africa is to a large extent due to its engagement with prophecy and divination. Strong growth in African Christianity takes place mainly in the African Initiated Churches (AICs) which are Pentecostal-charismatic in their outlook. In these Churches the emphasis is on the prophetic ministry of the Church, evident in the performance of divination, healing and in predictions of the future. A good example is the Lumpa Church of Lenshina. Taking this Church as a case study, the article argues that Lenshina’s success and that of her Church are based on the fact that divination, prophecy and a search for gender justice were taken seriously.

Teetotalism in Malawian Protestantism: Missionary Origins, African Appropriation

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-182
Author(s):  
Todd Statham
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Church Membership ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Home Culture ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Marginalised Groups ◽  
Traditional Societies ◽  
And Control ◽  
Abstinence From Alcohol

Although beer had a profound cultural, economic and religious significance among traditional societies in central Africa, teetotalism – in other words, abstinence from alcohol – has become widespread in Malawian Protestantism (as elsewhere in African Christianity), and in many churches it is regarded as a mark of true faith. This article examines the origins of the antipathy to alcohol in the Presbyterian missionaries who evangelised Malawi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who drew a parallel between the ‘problem of drink’ among the working poor in their home culture and central Africans, to urge sobriety and its concomitant values of thrift and hard work among their converts. Yet research shows that it was new Christians in Malawi themselves (and not the missionaries) who took the lead in making temperance or teetotalism a criterion for church membership. By drawing upon the experiences of other socially and politically marginalised groups in the British Empire at this time, it is suggested that these new Christians were likely motivated to adopt temperance/teetotalism in order to assert to foreign missionaries their ability to lead and control their own churches and countries.

Protestants and American Conservatism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillis J. Harp
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Moral Agent ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
American Conservatism ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Federal Authority ◽  
The Family ◽  
Conservative Beliefs ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The 1960S

Protestant beliefs have made several significant contributions to conservatism, both in the more abstract realm of ideas and in the arena of political positions or practical policies. First, they have sacralized the established social order, valued and defended customary hierarchies; they have discouraged revolt or rebellion; they have prompted Protestants to view the state as an active moral agent of divine origin; and they have stressed the importance of community life and mediating institutions such as the family and the church and occasionally provided a modest check on an individualistic and competitive impulse. Second, certain shared tenets facilitated this conjunction of Protestantism and conservatism, most often when substantial change loomed. For example, common concerns of the two dovetailed when revivals challenged the religious status quo during the colonial Great Awakening, when secession and rebellion threatened federal authority during the Civil War, when a new type of conservatism emerged, and dismissed the older sort as paternalistic, when the Great Depression opened the door to a more intrusive state, when atheist communism challenged American individualism, and, finally, when the cultural changes of the 1960s undermined traditional notions of the family and gender roles. Third, certain Christian ideas and assumptions have, at their best, served to heighten or ennoble conservative discourse, sometimes raising it above merely partisan or pragmatic concerns. Protestantism added a moral and religious weight to conservative beliefs and helped soften the harshness of an acquisitive, sometimes cutthroat, economic order.

Gender justice discourse in the educational system of Afghanistan during the Marxist period (1978–1992)

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 632-644
Author(s):  
M Davood Sokhanwar ◽  
Seyed Mahdi Sajjadi ◽  
Yahia Baiza ◽  
Mohsen Imani
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Hegemonic Discourse ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Effective Role ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Political Agents

This study examines women’s access to education (‘gender justice’) during the rule of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan from 1978 to 1992, using a qualitative research methodology and discourse analysis at the operational level from the perspective of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The data collected in this research were extracted from textual sources concerning the role of women in education in Afghanistan in the Marxist era: the importance of the data concerns an understanding of the intellectual and political atmosphere, particularly with regard to women’s education, in the government of the time. It is concluded that several factors contributed to the failure of the hegemonic discourse, despite intensive efforts made by Marxist government to realize hegemony and gender justice. Political agents, availability, credibility and exclusion, as elements of the hegemonic discourse, were evaluated and it is further concluded that these elements were unable to play an effective role in the discourse, as had been expected, and were gradually marginalized.

scholarly journals Exploring the Relevance of Feminist Leadership in Theological Education of Nigeria

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
Adesanya Ibiyinka Olusola
Keyword(s):  
Theological Education ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Theological Schools ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Feminist Leadership ◽  
The World ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Church

Feminist leadership is very important in theological education as it would seek to deconstruct stereotypical assumptions about women and gender in Christian theological traditions. Unfortunately, most of the theological schools in Nigeria do not have feminist as leaders. Five reasons why feminist leadership are needed in theological schools have been identified as, the bible teaching that women brought sin and death to the world, servant hood notion of women, scandal of particularity, male domination of ministries and theological methods and process that are full of stereotypes. All this does not provide women a unique opportunity to discover and develop their potential in the church and society. Also, women’s relevance and contributions can be hampered if not allowed to put in their optimum. To avoid this, the researcher suggests that theological education should not discriminate against any gender, but should work to bring about gender justice by involving the feminist leaders in theological education in Nigeria. It is hoped that by pursuing these steps, theological education in Nigeria would be preparing the way to sustainable development of the mission of Christ on earth.

Stifling the Imagination: A Critique of Anthropological and Religious Normalization of Witchcraft in Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 144-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T. Ngong
Keyword(s):  
Modern World ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Theological Perspective

Abstract Recent anthropological and religious, especially Christian, discourses on African witchcraft normalize the witchcraft imagination on the continent by failing to show how damaging the imagination has been to Africa’s move toward modernization. While anthropologists normalize it by studying the phenomenon ahistorically and by rationalizing and reinterpreting it, scholars and preachers of African Christianity see it as the context necessary for the growth of Christianity on the continent. However, this normalization of the witchcraft imagination stifles the African imagination because it does not encourage Africans to think in scientific ways that may be more helpful in the transformation of the continent in our modern world. This article is an attempt to liberate the African imagination by critiquing the witchcraft imagination from a rational and theological perspective. It also proposes policies that need to be taken in order to overcome this ruinous imagination and facilitate Africa’s dignified participation in the modern world.

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